Month: June 2016

BuJo Collections: Reading

~ ohayobento ~ 1 Comment

I love record keeping, tracking, measuring, and recording data. That’s probably why I became a scientist. And it’s also a big part of why I switched from using a Hobonochi planner to a bullet journal system. I love being able to record and track aspects of my life, hobbies, and work which was hard to do in a more traditional planner. Being able to add collections in my BuJo makes my soul happy 🙂

The latest collection I’ve been working on is based around reading. I go through stages where I read a ton. I’ll devour books faster than I can find them. Then I may not read for six months! Right now I’m craving the written word and I have an ever growing list of books that I want to dive into.

I have a simple list of the books I’ve put into my mental queue, but the ones I’m most excited about, and currently reading, are in this spread…

To keep all of each series together, I boxed it off with the series title and author at the top. Then each novel gets a progress bar. The two vertical dots represent 25, 50, and 75% of the pages. When I get the book, I put the page numbers there so that I know when I hit a certain page that I’ve gone halfway through. And of course, for tracking I’m coloring in each progress bar as I go.  The dot on the left of some of the progress bars represents that I physically have the book, and there is space on the right to write down the date it was finished.

I went through the first 3 Game of Thrones novels really fast! I loved them! But the fourth one… I’m having a hard time getting into it. Rather than force myself to read it, I’m taking breaks and working on other books in the meantime. Since it’s such a big novel, and each chapter is a character’s name rather than a number, I recreated a page by @craftyenginerd to serve as a chapter tracker.

Every time I make it through a chapter I add the colored detail to the flag. Not only does it help with my motivation to finish, but I love looking at it in my journal.

What different types of long-term collections do you have?

The supplies I used in the photos above are the following:*
Pens: Pilot Hi-Tec-C Maica in 0.3mm for color
Pens: Pilot Hi-Tec-C Maica in 0.4mm black
My Bujo: Leuchtturm1917 in Lemon Yellow Dot Grid

Happy Journaling!

*These are affiliate links.  If you purchase any of these items through the link, I will receive a small commission at no cost to you.  I will only link to items that I have purchased, used, and would be willing to purchase again.  Thank you for your support!

Bullet journal: May review and June plan with me!

~ ohayobento ~ 1 Comment

First off, let me just say… Better late than never, right? It’s mid-June and I just now published my May bullet journal review and June planning video!

Having a newborn makes it difficult to get filming, editing, blogging, etc finished. But it is so worth it! There were many times where I chose to hold her and stare at her sleeping face rather than work on this video. And I would make the same decision every day 🙂

I almost didn’t post it because it’s so late. But then I got to thinking… The video is super late. But that’s ok. At least I got it done. I wish some things in the video were better. But that’s ok too. And really, isn’t that the true basis of bullet journaling as a whole? To make mistakes, accept those mistakes and move on with your life, get things done, and improve next time?

With that in mind, here is my May review and June set-up!

The supplies I used in the video above are the following:*
Pens: Pilot Hi-Tec-C Maica in 0.3mm for color
Pens: Pilot Hi-Tec-C Maica in 0.4mm black
Highlighters: Pilot Frixion erasable highlighters

Happy Journaling!

*These are affiliate links.  If you purchase any of these items through the link, I will receive a small commission at no cost to you.  I will only link to items that I have purchased, used, and would be willing to purchase again.  Thank you for your support!

Pilot Frixion Highlighters Review

~ ohayobento ~ 2 Comments

Hello there! I’m sure you all know I have slight stationery addiction. And I’m not ashamed to admit it! My pen collection is a bit on the rediculously large side, I have numerous sets of markers, but highlighters? I usually don’t buy highlighters unless they are seriously special.

To me, highlighters tend to be garish. A little too bright and in your face. But that’s the whole point of them, right? You want the text you are highlighting to stand out. To be highlighted! But in my personal journals, craft journals, and bullet journal… That’s just not my style. I like color, but not too much. I like crisp clear and bright color, but not fluorescent.

Every now and then, I will venture down the highlighter path and see where it leads. A few months ago, I purchased the ever popular Zebra Mildliners because the colors are beautiful! They are understated and gorgeously muted. But… They bleed straight through the pages of my Leuchtturm bullet journal. And this is a sin that I cannot forgive.

I figured that I was just out of luck on the highlighter front. But then I was tempted again. I saw a ‘soft’ color set of the Pilot Frixion erasable highlighters on Amazon and couldn’t resist. My thought was that since they are erasable, maybe I could use them every now and then and erase it when it gets overwhelming or bleeds through.

img_6227
Well, was I in for a pleasant surprise. These highlighters do not bleed through at all! For them to be able to erase, they don’t soak into the paper, the ink dries and sits on the top so it can get rubbed off. And the colors aren’t too bright (except for the yellow) in the ‘soft’ version.

I’m slowly working on incorporating them into my daily spreads. I started by using them to fill in my sleep tracker rather than use the angled lines from a pen. So far, I really like it! Next is probably going to be highlighting my top 1-2 tasks for the day.

WARNING: I did notice that sometimes they smear the ink from my Pilot Hi-Tec-C Maica black pen. I’m not sure why this is because it isn’t consistent. I need to do more research on that…

Maybe I’m not out of luck on the highlighter front. Now hopefully they will expand their ‘soft’ color range. I would love to see a grey!!

The supplies I used in the photos above are the following:*
Pens: Pilot Hi-Tec-C Maica in 0.3mm for color
Pens: Pilot Hi-Tec-C Maica in 0.4mm black
Highlighters: Pilot Frixion erasable highlighters

Happy Journaling!

*These are affiliate links.  If you purchase any of these items through the link, I will receive a small commission at no cost to you.  I will only link to items that I have purchased, used, and would be willing to purchase again.  Thank you for your support!